IC-N 


GIFT  OF 
Class   of   1887 


ORATION 


HENRY  E.  HIGHTON 


—  AT 


SANTA  ROSA,  CAL,  JULY  4,  1890 


C.    A.    MURDOCK    it    CO. 

532  CI.AY  STREET 
1890 


ORATION 


—BY— 


HENRY  E.  HIGHTON 


—AT— 


SANTA  ROSA,  CAL,  JULY  4,  1890 


SAN    FRANCISCO 

C.    A.    MURDOCK    &    CO. 

532  CLAY  STREET 

1890 


HENRY    E.    HIGHTON, 

AT  SANTA  ROSA,  CAL.,  JULY  4,  1890. 


J/r.  President  and  Fellow-Citizens: 

I  esteem  it  a  great  privilege,  when  nine-tenths  of 
the  most  prolific  century  in  many  departments  of 
human  achievement  have  almost  passed,  to  be  per- 
mitted before  an  audience,  which,  exceptionally,  com- 
bines the  best  elements  of  American  citizenship, 
briefly  to  discuss  the  birth,  the  growth  and  the  future 
of  our  vast  Republic,  which  has  already  cast  a  lumin- 
ous shadow  upon  the  darkening  civilizations  that 
had  their  origin  in  feudal  institutions,  based  on  the 
divine  right  of  kings. 

The  yearly  celebration  of  the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill 
appropriately  manifests  our  appreciation  of  the  capac- 
ity for  heroic  effort  and  endurance  which  placed  that 
conflict,  apparently  unimportant  in  its  immediate  re- 
sults, among  the  decisive  battles  of  the  world. 

Memorial  Day  is  the  grandest  and  most  permanent 
tribute  to  the  unforgotten  and  the  patriotic  dead  ever 
devised  by  a  free  and  an  united  people,  and  it  has  ac- 
quired a  deeper  and  a  nobler  signification,  because, 

930872 


through  a  spontaneous  and  generous  impulse  in  the 
;N.orth  and.in%.the-  South,  it  has  come  to  represent  the 
obTiteratron  br"  all  the  rancorous  memories  of  our  Civil 
^^^^*f%€ippinjrj>fete  supremacy  of  the  Union  in  the 
hearts  of  our  citizens. 

But,  as  the  greater  includes  the  less,  so  our  National 
Anniversary  must  always  remain — pre-eminent  while 
our  Constitutional  Government  and  our  American  ideas 
prevail  and  endure.  That  Anniversary  is  related  to 
the  most  important  event  in  secular  history,  with  all 
its  realized  and  developing  results  and  consequences. 
It  means,  not  merely  the  birth  of  a  nation  after  throes 
and  anguish  which  lasted  for  centuries — not  merely  the 
establishment  and  the  organization  of  great  communi- 
ties in  which  the  rights  and  the  liberties  of  individuals, 
of  municipalities  and  of  States,  are  fundamentally  pre- 
served and  guarded  from  attacks  from  within  and  from 
without  by  State  Constitutions  and  laws,  and  by  an 
indestructible  Federal  system  ;  but  it  means  also  the 
discovery  and  the  practical  application  of  the  true 
theory  of  government  for  the  whole  human  race  and 
the  supremacy  of  the  deepest  personal  and  political 
sentiment  that,  from  the  earliest  ages,  has  agitated  the 
turbulent  breast  of  mankind. 

The  celebration  in  which  we  are  engaged,  therefore, 
is  deeply  important,  not  only  to  this  nation,  but  to  all 
nations,  not  only  to  our  own  citizens,  but  to  all  citizens 
and  all  subjects,  not  only  to  the  present  generation, 
but  to  all  succeeding  generations.  It  concentrates  the 
intelligence  and  the  aspirations  of  men  upon  the  mo- 
mentous questions  of  the  success  and  the  kind  of  suc- 
cess we  have  attained,  and  of  the  risks  and  dangers 
we  are  encountering  and  have  yet  to  encounter  in  our 


experiment,  if  indeed  we  have  not  passed  the  experi- 
mental phase  of  national  existence. 

If  we  traced  our  history  and  analyzed  the  present 
condition  of  our  country — excluding  from  our  consid- 
eration for  the  time  certain  enormous  evils  and  injuri- 
ous influences  to  which  I  may  hereafter  advert — we 
should  have  before  our  dazzled  eyes  the  most  crowded 
and  glittering  pages  in  the  annals  of  mankind.  It 
would  destroy  the  promised  brevity  of  this  address  to 
attempt  so  intricate  and  so  enlarged  a  view  of  my 
subject,  but  I  cannot  resist  the  temptation,  before  I 
proceed  to  the  governing  thoughts  I  desire  to  present, 
rapidly  and  suggestively  to  bring  before  your  instructed 
minds  a  few  propositions  and  facts,  which,  in  them- 
selves and  by  what  they  imply,  are  amply  sufficient  to 
gratify  our  national  pride  and  to  justify  reasonable 
self-glorification. 

We  have  given  to  the  world  the  spectacle  of  a  pro- 
digious, of  an  unequaled  development  and  advance- 
ment. In  Colonial  times,  especially  in  the  Declaration 
of  Rights  of  October  izj.th,  1774,  our  forefathers 
travailed  in  the  pain  of  political  gestation.  By  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  this  pain  was  assuaged, 
and  they  formulated  the  correlative  ideas  of  the  abso- 
lute sovereignty  of  God  and  the  relative  or  derived 
sovereignty  of  man,  twin  conceptions  which  define  the 
original  and  sustained  aspirations  of  the  human  race. 
In  the  Revolutionary  War  these  advanced  and  definite 
thoughts  were  carried  into  effective  action,  out  of 
weakness  was  evolved  strength,  out  of  chaos  law  and 
discipline.  The  Articles  of  Confederation,  ratified 
March  ist,  1781,  and  the  Federal  Constitution,  which 
became  operative  September  I3th,  1787,  completed 


the  establishment  and  the  organization  of  liberty  and 
of  order,  and  furnished  the  means  for  the  indefinite 
expansion  of  our  institutions.  We  successfully  fought 
the  War  of  1812,  which  may  be  called  the  aftermath 
of  our  acknowledged  independence.  We  suppressed 
local  rebellions  and  insurrections.  Through  our  State 
and  National  tribunals,  we  applied  our  political  princi- 
ples and  placed  the  Union  and  the  States  within  their 
constitutional  spheres.  We  defeated  Mexico  and  ex- 
tended our  western  border  to  the  Pacific.  We  de- 
stroyed slavery  and  secession  in  one  gigantic  struggle. 
We  assimilated  races  that  were  capable  of  grasping 
our  institutions  and  our  civilization,  and,  to  some  ex- 
tent, and  after  much  labor  and  contention,  we  repelled 
and  excluded  races  and  individuals  who  were  incapa- 
ble of  assimilation.  We  conquered  languages  and 
hereditary  prejudices  and  opinions  which  conflicted 
with  our  social  and  political  system.  We  made  edu- 
cation a  birthright,  and,  through  the  Common  Schools, 
endeavored  to  raise  our  entire  population,  native  and 
naturalized,  to  a  full  realization  of  the  obligations,  the 
duties  and  the  rewards  of  American  citizenship. 

These  are  a  very  few  references  which,  perhaps, 
may  be  termed  historical.  I  now  propose  to  offer 
brief,  very  brief  and  slight,  statistical  illustrations  of 
the  material  progress  of  the  United  States,  which  will 
be  compressed  into  two  or  three  pages  of  this  address, 
and  which,  though  they  cover  only  a  fraction  of  the 
evidences  of  our  resources  and  of  our  wealth,  may 
nevertheless  serve  to  indicate  a  development  that,  in 
the  details,  could  hardly  be  comprehended. 

The  area  of  the  States  and  of  the  Territories  is 
about  3,570,271  square  miles.  The  surveyed  public 


lands  up  to  June  3Oth,  1889,  embraced  604,508,986 
acres.  The  unsurveyed  public  lands — which  include 
many  thousands  of  acres  granted  to  corporations,  and, 
therefore,  not  available  to  the  people,  and  many  thou- 
sands of  acres  also  which  ought  to  be  restored  to 
the  public  domain — up  to  the  same  period,  were 
833,882,163  acres. 

Our  population,  as  nearly  as  it  could  be  estimated 
in  1885,  was  56,785,456,  and  it  is  confidently  expected 
that  the  present  census  will  show  that  it  has  increased 
to  from  63,000,000  to  65,000,000  persons.  The  popu- 
lar vote  in  1888  was  11,384,937,  which,  reckoning 
five  and  a  half  persons  to  each  voter,  then  established 
a  population  of  62,617,133. 

In  1880  there  were  10,013,826  enrolled  scholars  in 
the  different  States  and  Territories,  and  6,118,331 
pupils  in  actual  attendance  upon  the  public  schools, 
where,  thank  God,  our  boys  and  girls  can  now  usually 
receive  patriotic  inspiration  from  the  flag  of  their 
country.  In  this  connection  the  statistics  of  illiteracy 
for  the  year  1880  showed,  even  with  the  opportunities 
supplied  by  our  laws,  4,923,451  persons  who  could  not 
read,  and  6,239,958  who  could  not  write. 

The  value  of  our  manufactured  products  in  1880 
was  $5,369,667,706.  In  February,  1890,  the  esti- 
mated value  of  stock  on  farms,  including  horses,  mules, 
cattle,  sheep  and  swine,  was  $2,418,766,028.  Our 
crop  of  cereals  for  1889,  limiting  our  view  to  corn, 
oats  and  wheat,  was  worth  $1,112,191,544.  Nine 
years  ago — since  which  time  I  have  found  no  complete 
statement  on  the  point — our  metallic  and  mineral  pro- 
ducts aggregated  in  value  about  $591,659,931,  and, 
at  the  same  period,  we  had  162,160  miles  of  railroad, 


now  largely  increased.  The  amount  of  money  invested 
in  electrical  industries  alone  was  appraised  in  1889  at 
$600,000,000. 

The  total  value  of  all  the  property  in  the  country—- 
that is,  the  gross  value — on  January  ist,  1890,  was  es- 
timated at  $66,000,000,000,  or  at  the  rate  of  more  than 
$  1,000  to  each  inhabitant.  We  had  then  about 
18,000,000  owners  of  land  against  4,500,000  in  France 
and  30,000  in  England.  In  Scotland  the  proportion 
is  even  smaller. 

It  may  be  interesting,  while  I  am  on  this  branch  of 
my  theme,  to  observe  that  from  April,  1775,  until  the 
present  year,  we  had  sixteen  wars,  the  aggregate  forces 
engaged  in  which  were  3,881,371.  In  the  Civil  War 
the  men  actually  in  the  field  on  both  sides  numbered 
2,772,388. 

These  figures — which  cannot  be  dry  and  uninterest- 
ing to  educated  men  and  women — although  I  believe 
them  to  be  approximately  correct,  feebly  suggest  rather 
than  display  our  material  advancement.  Without  en- 
tering into  an  elaborate  exposition  of  the  topic  to 
which  they  relate,  they  speak  more  eloquently  and 
more  definitely  than  an  array  of  words,  and  they  are 
ample  to  prove  a  degree  of  accumulation  and  availa- 
ble resources  which  might  well  tax  the  credulity  of  an 
Adam  Smith  or  of  a  John  Stuart  Mill. 

When  we  consider  that  we  now  have  forty-three 
States,  including  Norih  Dakota  and  South  Dakota, 
admitted  November  3d,  1889,  Montana,  admitted  No- 
vember 8th,  1889,  and  Washington,  admitted  Novem- 
ber nth,  1889,  all  hostages  for  the  Union  and  yet 
preserving  their  sovereignty  under  the  Constitution; 
that  our  republic  is  washed  by  two  oceans,  more  than 


3,000  miles  apart,  and  connecting  us  with  Europe, 
with  Africa,  with  Asia,  with  Polynesia,  and  with  Aus- 
tralasia; that  we  have  expanded  to  such  an  extent 
through  the  Alaska  purchase  by  William  H.  Seward, 
that  San  Francisco  is  near  the  geographical  center  of 
the  Union;  that  the  center  of  population  is  now  far 
west  of  Cincinnati ;  that  we  are  about  to  have  an  ex- 
position of  the  industries  and  the  productions  of  all 
nations  in  a  city  with  over  a  million  inhabitants,  the 
site  of  which  fifty  years  ago  was  barely  known  ;  that 
commonwealths  of  heterogeneous  origin,  but  of  homo- 
geneous character  and  of  cosmopolitan  tendencies  and 
ambitions,  stretch,  under  our  flag  and  Constitution, 
along  the  length  of  the  Mississippi  and  across  the 
continent ;  that  for  our  protection  we  need  only  a  small 
army  of  25,000  or  26,000  men,  which,  nevertheless,  in 
any  emergency,  through  our  militia  and  volunteers, 
can  be  almost  instantly  made  as  numerous,  and,  pro- 
portionately, scarcely  less  effective  than  the  disciplined 
armies  of  Europe;  that  we  are  rapidly  constructing  a 
powerful  navy,  and  find  the  resources  and  the  plant 
even  of  the  extreme  West  adequate  to  the  enterprise ; 
that  we  are  engaged  in  immense  works  of  drainage, 
excavation  and  irrigation,  which  possibly  disturb  and 
affect  the  equilibrium  of  natural  forces  below  and 
above  the  earth  ;  that,  in  art,  science  and  literature,  we 
have  won  a  marked  and  recognized  distinction  through- 
out the  world ;  that  our  multiplication,  by  means  of 
inventions;  of  comforts  and  luxuries,  and,  therefore, 
of  necessities,  transcends  all  previous  experience;  that 
the  blending  of  blood  and  ideas  among  us  is  produc- 
ing a  composite  race  of  men  which,  in  fertility  of  re- 
sources, in  power  of  adaptation,  and  in  physical  .and 


IO    

mental  energy  and  strength,  is  rapidly  surpassing  the 
expectations  of  philosophers,  of  statesmen  and  of  po- 
litical economists; — when  all  these  uncolored  though 
mighty  truths  are  apprehended  and  coupled  with  the 
selected  figures  I  have  grouped  together,  what  more 
need  be  said,  from  an  utilitarian  standard  at  any  rate, 
of  what  we  have  accomplished  in  a  hundred  and  four- 
teen years  ? 

All  that  I  have  endeavored  to  depict,  and  perhaps 
have  succeeded  in  depicting  through  the  facts  alone, 
has  been  done  And  now,  in  all  these  aspects  having 
surpassed  the  dreams  of  genius,  what  of  it  ? — is  our 
experiment  an  assured  success? 

My  eulogy,  if  it  may  be  called  an  eulogy,  is  ended. 
Let  us  honestly  look  at  the  reverse  side  of  the  picture. 

Comprehensively  regarding  the  situation  of  the  world, 
not  excepting  our  own  country,  I  doubt  the  Nineteenth 
Century — that  is,  I  would  doubt  it  if  I  questioned 
the  absolute  sovereignty  of  God  and  the  subordinate 
sovereignty  of  man. 

Optimism  and  not  pessimism  has  been  my  life-long 
creed,  and  from  this  point  of  observation  it  may  be 
justly  said  that,  in  a  certain  sense,  all  ages  have  been 
progressive,  and  that  everywhere  and  in  every  epoch 
darkness  and  light  have  alternated  in  some  of  the 
elements  of  progress. 

This  is  true.  But  it  is  also  true  that  there  are  some 
things,  fundamental  in  civilization,  which  are  not  pro- 
gressive. The  conception  of  a  Personal  God,  the  blunt 
directions  of  the  moral  law,  the  principles  essential  to 
honor  and  to  integrity  in  individual,  social  and  national 
life,  are  inelastic,  fixed  and  immutable.  There  is  no 
possible  compromise  between  right  and  wrong.  The 


ruts  made  by  our  first  ancestors  are  those  in  which  we 
must  travel  if  we  would  keep  the  road. 

Now,  I  have  said,  with  some  reservations,  that  I 
doubt  the  Nineteenth  Century.  Why  do  I  doubt  it  ?  I 
am  not  here  to  deliver  a  moral  or  a  theological  lecture, 
but  in  strict  relation  to  my  subject,  this  question  must 
be  shortly  answered.  It  has  been  stated  that  "some- 
times there  is  more  truth  in  honest  doubt  than  in  all 
the  creeds."  Nevertheless,  the  doubt  itself  must  be 
defined  or  there  is  no  basis  for  criticism.  Why  then 
do  I  doubt  the  Nineteenth  Century?  Surely  not  be- 
cause of  any  want  of  intellectual  activity,  for  in  that 
respect  it  is  unique  and  incomparable.  Surely  not  be- 
cause of  any  deficiency  in  invention  or  discovery,  for  it 
has  brought  to  light  the  locomotive,  the  telegraph,  the 
sewing  machine,  the  phonograph,  and  a  host  of  expe- 
dients for  abridging  space, — for  drawing  populations 
together, — for  extending  trade,  commerce  and  agricul- 
ture— for  diminishing  labor  and  multiplying  the  muscu- 
lar power  of  man, — for  recording  human  feelings,  human 
thoughts,  human  utterances,  human  acts,  human  achieve- 
ments, even  human  voices, — for  subduing,  controlling, 
harnessing,  so  to  speak,  the  most  obdurate  forces  of 
nature.  Surely  not  for  want  of  ingenuity,  of  industry, 
of  method,  of  system,  for  in  all  these  respects  it  has 
capitalized  the  previous  labors  of  humanity  and  marked 
the  products  with  its  own  original  stamps.  Surely  not 
because  it  has  failed  to  explore  the  spheres  of  physics, 
of  society,  of  morals,  of  theology,  because  in  all  these 
departments  of  investigation  it  has  been  bold,  search- 
ing and  penetrating  beyond  all  possible  comparison, 
and  it  has  advanced  theories  and  hypotheses  more  nu- 
merous than  the  years,  the  weeks,  or  even  the  clays  of 
its  existence. 


No!  In  all  these  respects,  and  in  many  others  which 
might  be  added,  I  recognize — although  I  do  not  inva- 
riably admire — the  effectiveness  of  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury. It  is  unparalleled  in  many  of  its  phases.  Its  addi- 
tions to  human  comforts,  its  extensions  of  human  energy, 
its  useful  products  in  every  direction,  should  be,  as  they 
are  being,  appropriated. 

Why,  then,  do  I  question  the  Nineteenth  Century? 
My  answer  must  be  positive  but,  like  every  part 
of  this  address,  in  a  logical  or  even  in  a  literary 
sense,  incomplete.  I  detest  the  Agnosticism  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century — I  detest  its  casuistry — I  detest 
its  substitutions  of  expediency  for  principle — I  detest 
its  evasions  of  the  terse,  definite,  moral  law — I  detest 
its  intellectual  arrogance  and  pretension — I  detest  its 
pretexts  and  its  excuses  for  vice,  for  dishonesty,  for 
blasphemy — I  detest  its  weak  platitudes  and  its  chop- 
logic  for  the  benefit  of  the  rich  and  its  absurd  and 
flimsy  sentiment  to  unsettle  the  ignorant  and  the  poor — 
I  detest  its  stupid  deference,  through  sophistry  and 
assumed  refinement,  to  the  worst  and  most  enervating 
appetites  and  passions — I  detest  its  steady  effort  to 
mould  stern  Truth  to  the  palliation  or  justification  of 
practices  and  habits  which  corrupt  politics,  society,  the 
family,  the  individual  and  the  community  alike. 

All  these  things  I  detest.  Do  you  not  recognize 
and  detest  them  ?  What  less  can  I  say  about  that  which 
is  detestable? 

Look  at  the  practical  results  as  they  exist  in  per- 
sonal, social  and  political  life. 

Realize  for  an  instant  the  moral  indenniteness  and 
evasiveness,  the  selfishness,  the  rottenness,  the  lazi- 
ness, the  vanity,  the  false  pride,  which,  although  they 


have  always  existed,  are  among  the  special  growths  of 
the  Nineteenth  Century.  The  question  may  well  be  tol- 
erated, speaking  in  a  large  and  comprehensive  sense — 
are  truth,  faith,  earnestness,  love,  duty,  responsibility, 
subordination,  left  among  men,  or  have  they  been 
slain?  "Is  life  worth  living?"  was  the  interrogation 
of  a  modern  philosopher,  and,  with  other  motives  and 
objects,  the  interrogatory  frequently  recurs  to  those 
who  have  outlived  all  that  was  worth  having  in  them- 
selves. 

These  monstrous  evils  to  a  great  degree  developed — - 
to  some  extent  originated — by  the  Nineteenth  Century, 
have  borne  practical  results.  Do  you  comprehend  the 
actual  state  of  the  Europe  of  to-day?  It  is  a  disturbed 
though  a  slumberous  volcano.  Its  political  institutions, 
modified  through  necessity  or  tempered  by  fear,  are 
founded  on  feudalism  and  imperialism.  Its  uneducated 
and  its  poorer  classes  seek  only  and  naturally  for  change 
through  internationalism,  through  nihilism,  through 
anarchy,  through  the  obliteration  of  private  rights, 
and  through  revolutions  which,  like  Saturn,  destroy 
their  own  children.  They  are  kept  down  for  the 
time,  but  only  for  the  time,  by  armies  maintained 
by  discipline,  by  science,  by  arrogance.  The  aris- 
tocratic class  has  bred  within  itself  until  it  is  all 
manner  and  form  and  has  discarded  morality.  To 
be  sure,  these  propositions  are  not  universally  true — 
there  are  exceptions,  and  many  exceptions,  to  all 
general  rules — but  they  are  true  in  the  main. 
There  are  great  men,  great  statesmen,  great  philoso- 
phers, great  philanthropists,  noble  scions  of  ancient 
stocks,  in  Europe,  who  are  earnestly  striving  to  bring 
their  discordant  and  unsettled  populations  under  the 


sway  of  orderly  progress;  but  Europe,  as  a  whole,  is 
no  better  than  I  have  described,  and  its  highest  efforts 
in  the  direction  of  political  amelioration  are  feeble  imi- 
tations of  American  ideas,  so  disfigured  as  to  be  beyond 
recognition.  -The  privileged  classes  of  Europe  are  to- 
day drawing  upon  American  blood  and  American  capital 
to  recuperate  physical  degeneracy  and  to  rebuild  shat- 
tered fortunes  and  broken  houses. 

In  fact,  although  we  have  partly  stemmed  an  Asiatic 
onslaught  upon  our  territory  and  our  industries,  although 
we  have  devised  some  inadequate  legislation  to  exclude 
paupers  and  criminals,  we  are  to-day  undergoing  a 
European  invasion.  The  irruption  of  Gengis  Khan 
and  his  hordes  upon  the  steppes  of  Russia  was  not 
more  real  or  more  ominous.  Our  public  lands,  our 
important  industries,  our  mines,  our  commerce,  our 
manufactures,  are  being  absorbed,  and  trusts  and  con- 
solidations, which  coil  themselves  with  inflexible  pur- 
pose about  our  limbs,  are  inspired  and  controlled  by 
foreigners,  not  merely  idlers  and  aristocrats,  but  men 
of  nerve,  of  enterprise,  of  capital,  who  are  yet  our 
enemies  and  not  our  friends. 

What  does  all  this  mean?  Is  it  a  tribute  to  our 
institutions  and  our  resources,  or  does  it  portend  the 
audacity  of  desperation — the  ultimate  conflict  between 
the  old  and  the  new — between  Europe  and  America? 

I  believe,  fellow-citizens,  that  the  oligarchies,  the 
anarchies,  the  despotisms  of  the  Old  World  will  not  go 
down  without  one  final  effort  to  suppress  constitutional 
liberty;  and  that,  flatter  ourselves  though  we  may, 
invoke  the  Monroe  doctrine  though  we  do,  the  time  will 
come,  and  is  rapidly  approaching,  when  the  civilized 
world  will  become  American  or  our  Republic  will  be 
destroyed. 


—  15  — 

We  may  insist  on  remaining  fatuous  and  blind,  but 
the  indications  of  the  unavoidable  crisis  are  visible  on 
every  side,  and  indefinite  postponement  is  not  within 
the  Providential  order. 

You  may  dismiss,  but  I  beg  of  you  to  remember  my 
prognostications.  We  are  justly  rroud  of  our  Native 
Sons  and  of  our  Native  Daughters.  There  are  those 
among  them  who  will  live  to  see  whether  these  ideas 
are  false  or  true. 

I  say  we  are  threatened  from  without,  but  what  are 
we  doing  within?  To  my  mind  the  superficial  indica- 
tions of  the  day  are  against  the  permanence  of  our  gov- 
ernment and  of  our  form  of  civilization.  I  have  used 
the  term  "superficial  indications"  advisedly,  because  I 
believe  in  God  and  in  the  people,  and,  notwithstanding 
all  the  omens  of  disaster,  I  have  faith  in  the  ultimate 
success  of  our  system,  not  only  upon  this  continent,  but 
throughout  the  habitable  globe.  As  in  the  analogies 
of  the  ocean  or  the  atmosphere,  the  deeper  currents  of 
popular  thought  and  of  popular  feeling  are  often  below 
the  surface  and  contrary  to  apparent  movements  and 
tendencies. 

The  most  flaunting  appearances  of  the  day,  those 
which  are  the  most  distinct  in  society,  in  business  and 
in  politics,  are  against  us,  and  through  inertness,  through 
a  want  of  public  spirit,  through  a  deficiency  in  unselfish 
patriotism,  through  a  tacit  infidelity  to  American  insti- 
tutions, we  are  co-operating  with  our  enemies,  external 
and  internal. 

In  this  place  and  at  this  time  I  can  only  outline  and 
recapitulate  and  leave  the  filling-in  to  yourselves.  But 
let  us  not  blink  the  facts.  From  one  end  of  the  Re- 
public to  the  other  Labor  and  Capital,  naturally  allies,  are 


—   16  — 

organized,  antagonistic  and  mutually  defiant.  Capital 
aggregates  and  forms  trusts  and  syndicates,  which 
monopolize  products  and  oppress  the  masses.  Labor 
consolidates  its  forces  and  disturbs  both  production 
and  distribution.  Fortunes  are  created  beyond  the 
former  "dreams  of  avarice,"  and  having  exhausted  the 
pleasures  of  accumulation,  Dives  aspires  to  exclusive- 
ness,  to  privilege,  to  reactionary  revolution.  Too  fre- 
quently he  despises  the  equality  of  his  own  country, 
and  transfers  his  wealth  and  his  affections.  Old  men, 
who  are  imitated  by  the  young,  spend  their  last  days  in 
graduated  sensuality,  and  arrogantly  seek  to  buy  their 
immortality  and  their  happiness.  The  judiciary,  dis- 
trusted, occasionally  corrupt,  are  driven  or  led  into 
alliances  with  monopoly  or  license.  The  public  lands 
are  seized  in  immense  bodies  through  subsidies,  through 
fraud  and  through  collusion.  Over-education  without 

o 

industrial  direction  produces  the  parasite,  the  office- 
seeker,  the  hoodlum — the  licentious  drones  of  metro- 
politan communities — the  bully  and  the  beggar,  united 
like  the  Siamese  twins.  Blatant  demagogues  assume 
the  functions  of  leaders.  The  cities  are  crowded  with 
tax-eaters  and  property-eaters.  Bosses  run  municipal, 
sometimes  State,  never,  so  far,  national  politics,  and— 
the  mere  figure-heads  of  more  obscure,  but  more  pow- 
erful criminals  behind  them— bleed  alike  their  merce- 
naries and  the  public,  and  render  fraud  and  dishonesty 
so  respectable  that  criticism  excites  derision  and  de- 
generates into  useless  cant.  Every  subordinate  depart- 
ment of  Government  is  more  or  less  tainted  and  infected. 
Even  the  punishment  or  the  acquittal  of  persons  accused 
of  crime  depends  more  upon  influence  and  combination 
than  upon  facts  and  law.  Official  action  is  neither  equal 


nor  uniform,  and  is  regulated  by  favoritism  or  con- 
trolled by  money  or  power.  Public  institutions  minis- 
ter to  private  greed,  and  their  operations  are  falsified 
and  their  objects  disregarded.  Federal  Senatorships 
are  sold  to  the  highest  bidders  without  distinction  of 
party  and  with  no  regard  to  qualifications.  Men  are 
placed  in  high  positions  who  are  less  reputable  and 
less  useful  than  the  horse  that  Nero  converted  into 
a  consul.  Divorces  bear  an  undue  proportion  to  mar- 
riages, and  the  diminution  of  the  death  rate  is  more 
than  compensated  by  the  frequency  of  births.  The 
discipline  of  the  family  is  superseded  by  insubordina- 
tion and  premature  self-assertion.  Scheming  takes 
the  place  of  labor,  tricks  the  place  of  honesty.  The 
Almighty  and  the  moral  law  are  ignored.  Intellect  is 
purchased,  submerged,  driven  into  obscurity,  or,  by 
the  reaction  of  disgust,  turned  into  channels  inimical 
to  the  public  interests.  The  press — more  especially 
the  metropolitan  press — fails  in  its  duty — caters  to  the 
worst  appetites  and  passions — invades  the  privacy  of 
the  family — attacks  reputation  causelessly  and  wan- 
tonly— permits  itself  to  be  subsidized — represents  in- 
dividual and  corporate  interests — becomes  a  tool  of 
wealth  and  of  dishonorable  ambition — distorts,  per- 
verts and  seeks  to  control  the  proceedings  in  courts 
of  justice — fails  in  its  great  mission  of  generating  while 
it  represents  public  opinion.  And  when  spasmodic  and 
ill-conceived  reforms  are  attempted,  we  find  one  class 
seeking  to  minimize  plunder  by  antagonizing  all  public 
improvements,  and  another  class  using  enterprise  and 
improvement  as  a  means  of  plunder;  we  find  the  sore 
occasionally  cicatrized  and  covered  by  the  scab,  while 
the  impure  blood  feeds  the  disease  and  induces  new 
eruptions. 


—  i8  — 

These  are  superficial  but  actual  facts,  which  are 
disclosed  and  uncovered  day  by  day,  week  by  week, 
month  by  month,  and  year  by  year.  And  all  the  time 
the  masses  of  the  American  people  work  and  eat  and 
sleep  in  blissful  unconsciousness  and  security. 

What  wonder  that  the  philosophical  and  thoughtful 
poet  of  our  last  celebration  but  one  in  the  city  where  I 
live  should  have  expressed  the  truth  in  stinging  lines 
like  these: 

"But  when  (oh,  distant  be  the  time!) 
Majorities  in  passion  draw 
Insurgent  swords  to  murder  Law, 
And  all  the  land  is  red  with  crime ; 

"Or — nearer  menace  ! — when  the  band 
Of  feeble  spirits  cringe  and  plead 
To  the  gigantic  strength  of  Greed, 
And  fawn  upon  his  iron  hand ; 

"Nay,  when  the  steps  to  pow'r  are  worn 
In  hollows  by  the  feet  of  thieves, 
And  Mammom  sits  among  the  sheaves 
And  chuckles  while  the  reapers  mourn — 

"Then  stay  thy  miracle;  replace 

The  broken  throne,  repair  the  chain, 
Restore  the  interrupted  reign 
And  veil  again  thy  patient  face." 

This  invocation  is  the  condensation  of  truth  and  the 
essence  of  true  poetry. 

Of  course,  you  will  not  unduly  extend  or  exaggerate 
the  views  I  have  ventured  to  express  with  reference  to 
the  superficial  evils  which,  if  they  were  permitted  to 
breed  and  eat  into  the  body  politic,  might  ultimately 
destroy  our  institutions.  They  are  real,  apparent,  dan- 
gerous evils,  the  actual  existence  and  extent  of  which 
you  cannot  fail  to  recognize.  They  are  too  conspicuous 
and  obvious  to  be  ignored.  I  have  referred  to  them 


—   i9  — 

in  terms  which,  however  discursive  and  disconnected, 
sound  strongly  in  my  own  ears.   But  please  to  remember 
that  they  represent  only  one  phase  and  that  an  exterior 
phase  of  our  condition.     The  deeper  currents  still  exist 
and  they  harmonize  with  our  blood,  our  faith,  our  re- 
spect for  the  home  and  for  the  family,  our  ambition  for 
decency,  our  consciousness  of  the  need  of  clean  and 
wholesome  trade,  commerce,  manufacture,  agriculture 
and  politics.    The  heart  and  the  intellect  of  the  masses 
are  to-day  sound  and  unpolluted.     They  have  simply 
allowed  themselves  to  be  ignored  or  used  and  have 
been  guilty  of  indifference,  apathy  and  neglect.     Re- 
lieved  through  the    bounty  of  Providence    from   the 
struggle  for  mere  existence,  from  the  wearing  competi- 
tions and  sufferings  which  prevail  in  the  dense  popula 
tions  of  Europe,  they  have  not  stopped  to  consider  that 
even  their  rich  inheritance  could  not  be  forever  wasted, 
and  that  fundamental  law  and  principle  could  not  for- 
ever be  disregarded,   without  the  reproduction  of  all 
those    conditions   which   from  the   beginning  of  time 
have  demoralized  and  disrupted  monarchies,  empires 
and — republics.     They  have  not  been  forced,  through 
individual  trials  and  experiences,  to  realize  that  there 
is  absolutely  no  exemption  from  the  operation  of  immu- 
table truth,  and  that  the  shifts,  the  devices,  the  casuis- 
tical reasoning,  the  sophistical  evasion  and  pretenses, 
the  temporary  successes  even,  of  men,  in  their  efforts 
to  have  their  own  way  and  to  substitute  themselves  for 
the  Almighty,   have  strewn  the  path  of  history  with 
failures  and  ruins. 

These  facts  and  these  reflections,  it  seems  to  me,  are 
now  brought  home  to  us,  and  respect  for  the  Founders 
of  the  Republic,  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  our 


20    

inherent  love  of  the  right  and  of  the  true,  our  obliga- 
tions to  posterity,  even  to  humanity  at  large,  demand 
a  swift,  intelligent,  bold  and  definite  remedy.  A  free, 
educated  people  with  the  moral  law  in  their  hearts  and 
with  the  ballot  in  their  hands  are,  and  of  right  ought 
to  be,  invincible.  No  evident  emergency  has  ever 
arisen  in  our  history  that  has  not  been  fully  met.  It  is 
the  emergencies  which  are  not  evident  that  delude  and 
paralyze  good  citizenship. 

I  am  quite  aware  that  it  may  be  considered  that  he 
who  exposes  disease  should  offer  a  satisfactory  cure, 
but  who  can  go  beyond  the  lines  of  broad  generaliza- 
tion in  a  restricted  popular  address,  hastily  prepared, 
and  delivered  in  the  midst  of  brilliant  pageantry  and 
patriotic  rejoicings?  I  must  not  attempt  to  extend 
these  observations,  but  I  can,  and  I  will  tell  you  where, 
in  my  opinion,  the  remedy  is  to  be  found.  It  is  in  the 
people  themselves,  aroused  to  the  necessities  of  this 
occasion,  and  acting  under  the  Constitution  and  the 
laws.  There  is  no  cure  for  our  evils  either  in  senti- 
mentality or  in  disorder.  Anarchy,  nihilism,  all  the  alien 
and  domestic  sects,  which  offer  to  purify  our  country  by 
lawlessness  or  by  patent  medicines,  are  not  worth  a 
rush  in  America,  and  are  in  themselves  dangers  which 
it  is  our  duty  to  control  and  extirpate.  Believe  me, 
fellow-citizens,  you  will  never  improve  the  system  or 
the  ideas  of  the  fathers.  They  placed  government 
on  its  only  true  foundation,  and  they  trained  their  own 
generation  to  build  on  that  foundation  in  strength,  in 
symmetry  and  in  beauty.  Their  work  is  indelible— 
their  precedents  the  only  safe  and  perfect  guide,  as 
applicable  to  five  hundred  millions  and  to  a  complex 
and  intricate  network  of  relations  and  interests  as  to 


2  I 


three  millions  and  the  comparative  penury  and  sim- 
plicity of  the  last  century. 

Let  self-government,  under  our  institutions,  be  real 
and  constant,  and  all  our  problems  will  be  settled.  It 
is  a  plain  and  easy  remedy  to  suggest,  but  it  would 
compel  radical  alterations  in  our  own  conduct.  To 
govern  ourselves  successfully  we  must  love  God  and 
our  neighbors,  and  that  implies  the  intelligent  study 
and  the  rigid  performance  of  all  our  duties,  to  our  fam- 
ilies, to  our  friends,  to  local  and  subordinate  depart- 
ments of  the  State,  to  the  State  itself  and  to  the  Fed- 
eral Government.  The  fact  is  the  people  must  reform 
themselves,  or  rather  not  so  much  reform  themselves 
as  reform  their  conduct.  They  must  return — that  is 
the  word — to  the  principles  and  the  methods  in  which 
their  national  existence  and  their  prosperity  originated. 
The  public  interests  must  be  ever  before  them.  Selfish 
absorption  in  private  concerns,  civic  indifference,  must 
be  regarded  as  a  crime.  Every  man  must  do  his  part, 
be  it  humble  or  great,  in  regulating  and  controlling 
every  department  of  government.  He  must  vote 
at  the  primaries,  he  must  attend  and  participate  in 
public  meetings,  he  must  faithfully  exercise  his  right  at 
the  ballot-box.  A  corrupt  "boss,"  a  purchased  dema- 
gogue, a  selfish  monopolist,  a  rotten  politician,  is  sub- 
stantially a  traitor,  and  it  ought  to  be  considered  trea- 
sonable to  commit  the  management  of  political  affairs 
to  such  men,  or  to  suffer  them,  even  by  mere  inaction, 
to  assume  any  political  authority  whatever.  If  merce- 
nary politicians,  incompetent  and  tricky  office  holders, 
unfaithful  judges — the  entire  mass  of  men  who  dissipate 
or  who  purloin  the  earnings  of  their  neighbors — are  too 
strong  for  the  people,  the  sooner  we  know  the  fact  the 


22 


better.  But  they  are  not  too  strong — let  the  people 
arise  like  a  giant  refreshed  by  sleep  and  they  would 
be  instantly  punished  for  their  offenses  or  swept  into 
merited  obscurity. 

My  whole  deduction  from  the  premises  I  have 
imperfectly  laid  down  resolves  itself  into  the  proposi- 
tion that  if  we  believe  what  we  profess,  if  we  have 
faith  in  our  institutions,  if  we  recognize  God  and  the 
moral  law,  if  we  are  true  to  ourselves,  if  we  have  not 
abandoned  the  rugged  convictions  of  duty  and  of  obli- 
gation— self-government,  after  the  manner  of  our 
ancestors  and  in  conformity  with  our  political  system, 
will  be  made  a  solid  and  durable  fact  throughout  the 
United  States,  and  our  theories  and  our  practices  be 
brought  into  at  least  approximate  correspondence. 
The  combined  accumulations  of  all  the  individuals, 
trusts,  syndicates  and  corporations  in  the  country 
which  are  actually  dangerous  to  our  social  and  political 
life,  do  not  represent  one-twentieth  of  the  value  of 
all  the  property  held  by  American  citizens.  They  are 
successful  because  they  are  active  and  united,  because 
they  can  buy  and  prostitute  intelligence  beyond  their 
own,  and  because  they  are  let  alone  and  allowed  to 
operate  in  mystery  and  in  darkness,  while  good  citizen- 
ship is  worshiping  its  own  Mammon  in  the  distance 
and  ignoring  the  flight  of  time  and  the  fecundity  of 
wrong. 

Am  I  not  accurate,  fellow-citizens  ?  Is  it  not  essen- 
tial that,  in  some  particulars,  we  reform  ourselves  and 
cease  to  delegate  our  powers  or  permit  them  to  be 
usurped  ?  Let  every  voter,  for  one  single  year,  inde- 
pendently and  manfully  do  his  part  of  the  common 
labor,  and  inspired  patriotism  will  see  the  beginning 
of  the  Golden  Age. 


Oh!  that  we  may  be  re-baptized  into  a  pure  Amer- 
icanism which  is  broad  enough  and  liberal  enough  to 
take  in  and  appropriate  the  best  elements  of  the  world  ! 
Oh !  that  we  may  fix  our  eyes  upon  the  lofty  standard 
of  those  who  toiled  and  died  that  we  micrht  live  !  Oh  ! 

o 

for  a  great  uprising  of  the  people  in  unconquerable 
might  and  dignity,  until  every  evil  which  stains  and 
endangers  our  nation  shall  be  swept  away  and  disap- 
pear ! 

Then — and  the  time  is  at  hand  unless  all  calcula- 
tions based  on  the  intelligence  and  the  integrity  of  the 
people  are  fallacious — we  shall  see  agriculture,  com- 
merce, trade,  manufacture,  working  hand  in  hand  for 
a  common  object  and  testing  their  power  against  every 
disorganizing  force — we  shall  see  the  end  of  all  par- 
tisan strifes  which  seek  merely  for  the  spoils — we  shall 
see  mind,  governed  by  integrity,  supreme  over  every 
form  of  chicanery — we  shall  see  enforced  decency  and 
prosperity  in  individual,  domestic,  social  and  political 
life — we  shall  see  brains  and  honesty  emancipated 
from  the  despotism  of  wealth  and  restored  to  influence 
and  authority — we  shall  see  education  directed  to  spe- 
cific ends  and  engaged  in  the  definite  work  of  civiliza- 
tion, making  men  producers  and  not  parasites — we 
shall  see  Labor  and  Capital,  which  have  a  common 
origin  and  a  common  obligation,  blended  into  harmony, 
instead  of  antagonizing  each  other  in  protracted  con- 
troversies— we  shall  see  human  rights  and  property 
adequately  protected — we  shall  see  the  suppression  of 
narrow  sectarianism  and  of  patent  remedies  for  flaring 
wrongs — we  shall  see  God  and  the  moral  law  asserted 
and  obeyed — we  shall  see  the  full  development  of 
healthy  and  proselytizing  Americanism — and  we  shall 


-  24  - 

pay  our  debt,  not  only  to  France  by  a  visible  gift,  but  to 
humanity  by  a  flood  of  light  from  a  permanent  and 
regenerated  Republic,  whose  Stars  and  Stripes  shall  be 
the  converging  point  of  hope  and  faith  in  the  destiny 
of  man. 

"  O  blessed  Flag,  sign  of  our  precious  Past, 
Triumphant  Present,  and  our  Future  vast, 

Beyond  starred  blue  and  bars  of  sunset  bright 
Lead  us  to  higher  realms  of  Equal  Right  ! 
Float  on,  in  every  lovely  allegory, 

Kin  to  the  eagle  and  the  wind  and  light, 
Our  hallowed,  eloquent,  beloved  'Old  Glory.'" 


Photomount 

Pamphlet 

Binder 

Gaylord  Bros.,  Inc. 

Makers 

Stockton,  Calif. 
PAT.  JAN.  21.  1908 


930972 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


